Roles and permissions in DSM

Note: This article provides information for Design System Manager (DSM) users who belong to an InVision Enterprise team that is also using (or considering) a DSM Enterprise plan. User roles are not available with the DSM Free plan. For a quick visual walkthrough of roles and permissions in DSM, check out our DSM Learn Hub.

Design System Manager (DSM) lets you control user roles for both the organization and each library. DSM has three organization-level roles—each with different permissions for what members can access and do within your DSM organization. DSM also has three library-level roles—each with different permissions for what members of the given DSM library can access and do within that library. Each member of your DSM organization can have differing library-level roles from one DSM library to the next.

There is also a DSM visitor designation for members of the associated InVision Enterprise account who do not need to edit the design system, view invite-only libraries, or access DSM via the Sketch tool. To keep up with the latest changes to your organization’s visual language, DSM visitors can view your open-access libraries on the web without requiring a paid seat through your DSM Enterprise subscription.

The various DSM roles and their respective permissions are described below.

Organization-level roles

Your DSM organization consists of three types of DSM collaborators—admin, editor, and viewer. All DSM collaborators must have a paid seat within the organization’s DSM Enterprise subscription. When an organization-level admin invites members of the associated InVision Enterprise account to join the DSM organization, each member will fill a seat previously purchased through the DSM Enterprise subscription.

Admins can allow other members of the associated InVision Enterprise account to access DSM as visitors (non-collaborators). Due to the limited access to the DSM organization, this free visitor designation is best reserved for people who may need to access your DSM web portal but who do not need to access your various DSM libraries in Sketch.

To allow DSM visitors, a DSM organization admin must enable open access:

Under the Who can access DSM? heading, click the Anyone at [your Enterprise name] option.

All members of your InVision Enterprise team (DSM collaborators and DSM visitors) can access your DSM web portal; however, only paying DSM collaborators can access invite-only libraries on your DSM web portal as well as any of your DSM libraries via the Sketch tool.

Admin

A DSM organization admin can do the following to manage the organization:

Note: For Enterprise accounts, only members of the InVision account can be invited as members of the DSM account.

From the DSM web view, an admin can click the People tab to add library members and set their roles.

In the People section of the DSM web view, an admin can also remove current members or change their roles.

Editor

A DSM organization editor can do the following to manage the organization:

Edit libraries that are available to anyone in the organization

Create new libraries

Release new library versions

Viewer

A DSM organization viewer has the following permissions:

Access your DSM web portal in read-only format (cannot make edits)

View the member list on the People tab

View organization libraries that have not been set to invite-only (i.e., private libraries)

View the design token documentation

Download icons

Access DSM libraries in Sketch

Visitor

A DSM organization visitor has the following permissions:

Access your DSM web portal in read-only format (cannot make edits)

View the member list on the People tab

View organization libraries that have not been set to invite-only (i.e., private libraries)

View the design tokens page

Download icons

Important: The visitor role applies to anyone without a paid seat within the organization’s DSM Enterprise subscription. Therefore, you cannot asign someone the visitor role, and visitors cannot access invite-only / private libraries.

A DSM organization visitor has the following limitations:

Cannot access any of your DSM libraries in Sketch

Cannot access invite-only DSM libraries in your DSM web portal

Library-level roles

Each admin and editor for your DSM organization can create DSM libraries, making her or him the admin for the specific libraries they create. They can also invite people to the libraries they create and can assign the invitees’ roles for each specific library.

When inviting other members of your DSM organization to a specific library, the invitees will retain their organization-level permissions. For example, if an organization-level editor creates a library (thereby becoming the library admin) and invites another organization-level editor to that library, that invitee will have editor rights for the library.

The DSM library-level roles and their respective permissions are described below.

Admin

A DSM library admin can do the following to manage the specific library:

Set library privacy settings

Invite members of the DSM organization to the library

Set roles for library members

Edit the library

Release new library versions

Note: Only members of the DSM organization can be invited to a library.

When adding members to a specific DSM library, an admin can also set their library-level roles.

Editor

A DSM library editor can do the following to manage the specific library:

Invite members of the DSM organization to the libraryRemember: Invited members will retain their organization-level permissions (e.g., an org-level editor will become a library editor).

Edit the library

Release new library versions

Viewer

A DSM library viewer has these permissions for the specific library:

View library components, colors, and text styles documentation

View design token documentation

Download icons

Access DSM libraries in Sketch

Visitor

If the share setting for a library has been set to Anyone with the link, then a DSM visitor can do the following for the specific library:

View library components, colors, and text styles documentation

View design token documentation

Download icons

Library privacy settings

There are three library privacy settings that you can use to determine who can access the library:

Anyone in my DSM organization

Only invited people

Anyone with a DSM share link, including anonymous users, can view the library, but not use it via Sketch.

Note: DSM organization admins are also admins of all libraries in the organization, independently of their privacy settings.

After clicking the Invite button at the top-right of a DSM library, an admin or editor can click the Settings link to choose one of the three share settings for the link.